Air versus Land Vehicle Decisions for Interfacility Air Medical Transport

Transcription

1 Air versus Land Vehicle Decisions for Interfacility Air Medical Transport Arsham Fatahi A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Applied Science Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering University of Toronto Copyright by Arsham Fatahi 2013

2 Air versus Land Vehicle Decisions for Interfacility Air Medical Transport Arsham Fatahi Master of Applied Science Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering University of Toronto 2013 Abstract In emergency medical transport, time to definite care is very important. In the setting of a trauma patient, this time interval is referred to as the golden hour in recognition that transport to a designated trauma centre positively impacts patient outcome. The same is true for other time-sensitive conditions such as acute myocardial infarction, acute ischemic stroke, and sepsis. Emergency medical services and transport medicine agencies have several possible vehicle options for interfacility transfers. Use of a land vehicle, helicopter, or fixed wing aircraft will be dependent on patient condition, distance between sending and receiving hospitals, crew configuration and capabilities, and other factors such as weather and road conditions. This thesis lays out the complex process of patient transfers and highlights the challenges in decision making under time pressure; it then describes the behaviour of human operators in estimating time to definite care. Analysis of a historical dataset on ii

3 interfacility transfers revealed that time to definite care estimates deviate significantly from observed times; in particular, transfers involving an air leg were found to be highly underestimated. In order to support the operators in choosing a transportation mode, a decision support tool was built, which provides relevant time estimates for interfacility transfers based on historical dispatch and call data. The goal is to enable operators to make evidence-based decisions on vehicle allocation. The design requirements for the tool were identified through interviews with the end-users and field observations. The process was first split into subcomponents based on how the operations are conducted and time estimates for each interval was then generated based on historical data. Algorithms were then developed to aggregate the estimates of each interval and determine transfer times for all combinations of sending and receiving facilities. Finally, a prototype interface was generated and was evaluated through a usability study. iii

4 Acknowledgment I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my supervisors, Dr. Birsen Donmez and Dr. Russell MacDonald, for providing me with the opportunity to work on this project, and for their invaluable assistance, support and guidance during this work. I especially would like to thank Dr. Donmez for her time and attention in editing this thesis, and Dr. MacDonald for motivating me and helping me to complete this thesis in a timely manner. I would also like to thank Mahvareh Ahghari for her extensive support in providing all the necessary information and requirements regarding this project. It has been a pleasure working with all of you, and I appreciate all the insight you have provided me. I would like to thank my thesis committee members, Dr. Mark Chignell and Dr. Jacques Lee, for devoting their time to review my thesis, and for their valuable comments. I wish to express my special gratitude and thanks to my manager, Mr. Bruce Farr, for giving me a flexible schedule to complete this work. Many thanks to all the Ornge operations managers, transport medicine physicians, communications officers, the pilots and paramedics of Toronto Island, Timmins and Markham bases for taking the time to speak with me, walk me through the task process, and answer my questions. Special thanks to Mark Repic and Donald Bradley for all the support and assistance during my field observations and interviews at the Ornge communications centre (OCC). I would also like to thank Jenna Khamis for helping me last summer in conducting analyses and creating the preliminary version of the tool. Thanks to Flo Veel, Wayne Giang, Adrian Matheson, Dr. Paul Milgram, and all the HFASt members for sharing their knowledge and inspiring ideas. I would like to dedicate this thesis to my beloved parents and brothers for their understanding, endless patience and encouragement when it was most required. Arsham Fatahi January 2013 iv

5 Table of Contents 1 Introduction Transport Medicine Mode of Transport An Introduction to Decision Making under Time Pressure Thesis Organization and Phases of Research Air Medical Transport System in Ontario General Information Field Observations and Interviews Interviews and Shadowing of Ornge Communications Centre (OCC) Staff Interviews and Shadowing of Ornge Paramedics Ornge Transport Medicine Team Ornge Dispatch Process for Emergent/Urgent Interfacility Transfers Ornge Field Operations during Emergent/Urgent Interfacility Transfers The Decision Making Challenge Time to Definite Care Estimations Historical Time to Definite Care Estimates Data Analysis Strategy Ornge Historical Data ACRV Database Relevant Data Fields Data Characteristics and Limitations Data Analysis Strategy: Unit of Analysis Time Intervals Effect of Different Factors on Transfer Effect of Different Factors on Air Transfer Time Base Provider Effect on Air Transfers Effect of Aircraft Model on Air Transfers Effect of Time of Year (Month) on Air Transfers Effect of Time of Day (Hour) on Air Transfers Effect of Distance on Air Transfers Effect of Route on Air Transfers Effect of Different Factors on Land Transfer Times Base Provider Effect on Land Transfers Effect of Time of Year (Month) on Land Transfers Effect of Time of Day (Hour) on Land Transfers Effect of Distance on Land Transfers Effect of Route on Land Transfers Conclusion v

7 Table of Figures Figure 2-1 Toronto Rotor-wing Base (Photo by Author) Figure 2-2 Toronto Rotor-wing Base (Photos by Author) Figure 2-3 Timmins Fixed-wing Base (Photos by Author) Figure 2-4 Map of Ornge Base Providers Figure 2-5 Ornge Dispatch Process for Emergent/Urgent Interfacility Transfers Figure 3-1 Sample Form Used by Planners to Report Estimated Times Figure 3-2 Actual Time to Definite Care versus the Times Estimated by Planners Figure 3-3 Histograms of Estimation Errors for Air and Land Transfers Figure 4-1 Comparison of Two Possible Approaches to Manage the Data; without Data Aggregation (left), with Data Aggregation/ Modularity Concept (right) Figure 4-2 Each of the estimated intervals can be considered as an individual module. The modules can be connected together to produce a variety of time estimates for different combinations Figure 4-3 The Comparison of Total Time Estimates for a Particular Route: Modular Design (Top), Integrated Design (Bottom) Figure 4-4 A Visual Representation of the Time Intervals Figure 5-1 Interval A for Different Aircraft Models Figure 5-2 Linear Relationship between the Distance and Travel Time for S-76 Helicopters Figure 5-3 No information regarding the duration of additional land-leg subintervals were available in the dataset Figure 5-4 Interval A Comparison across 7 Ornge Land Bases Figure 5-5 Linear Relationship between Driving Distance and Travel Time from Base to Sending Facility Figure 5-6 Linear Relationship between Driving Distance and Travel Time from Sending Facility to Receiving Facility Figure 5-7 Linear Relationship between Historical Travel Times by Land Ambulances and Estimates Obtained through Bing Maps Figure 6-1 Most of the intervals had a positively skewed distribution Figure 6-2 An Example of the Outliers in the Interval C-Land s Data for Mount Sinai Hospital Figure 6-3 Time Estimation Process for Interval A for Air Transfers Figure 6-4 Time Estimation Process for Interval B for Air Transfers Figure 6-5 Time Estimation Process for Interval C for Air Transfers Figure 6-6 Time Estimation Process of Interval D for Air and Land Transfers Figure 6-7 Time Estimation Process for Interval E for Air Transfers Figure 6-8 Time Estimation Process of Interval F for Air Transfers Figure 6-9 Time Estimation Process for Interval G for Air Transfers Figure 6-10 Time Estimation Process for Interval A for Land Transfers Figure 6-11 Time Estimation Process for Interval B for Land Transfers Figure 6-12 Time Estimation Process for Interval C for Land Transfers Figure 6-13 Time Estimation Process for Interval E for Land Transfers Figure 6-14 Time Estimation Process for Interval F for Land Transfers Figure 6-15 Time Estimation Process for Interval G for Land Transfers Figure 7-1 Preliminary Design of the Excel Version of the Tool (Histograms are presented in different Excel tabs) Figure 7-2 Tool s Input Section Figure 7-3 Tool s Output Table Figure 7-4 Visual Representation of Estimates Figure 7-5 Histogram for Interval G-Air for one of the Facilities in Ottawa Figure 7-6 Participants believed seeing all the other sub-intervals are good but not always necessary Figure 7-7 Participants expected an auto-complete feature similar to the ones used in web search engines.89 Figure 7-8 An Interface Revision Suggest by a Participants vii

8 List of Tables Table 2-1 Ornge General Information... 9 Table 2-2 Ornge Base Providers Table 3-1 Standard Deviations of Actual and Estimated Time to Definite Care Values Table 5-1 Estimated Regression Parameters for Common Aircraft Models Used by Ornge Table 5-2 Adding month in the statistical models of air transfer times does not significantly change the adjusted R squared values Table 5-3 Adding time of day in the statistical models of air transfer times does not significantly change the adjusted R squared values Table 5-4 Poor Predictive Power of Models for Additional Land Legs Table 5-5 Adding month in the statistical models of land transfers does not significantly change the adjusted R squared values Table 5-6 Adding time of day in the statistical models of land transfers does not significantly change the adjusted R squared values Table 5-7 Summary of Significant Factors for Air Transfers Table 5-8 Summary of Significant Factors for Land Transfers viii

9 1 Chapter 1 1 Introduction 1.1 Transport Medicine Transport medicine is about delivering specialized care in a mobile environment, which has become a key component of healthcare in many countries throughout the world. In Canada, patient transfers between facilities or between facilities and a specialty care resource have increased as a result of regionalization, specialization, and facility designation. Further, air medical transport services are playing an increasingly important role in transport medicine systems, by moving patients safely and swiftly throughout the country [1]. The comprehensive process involved before, during, and after moving a patient from one location to another is called a patient transfer. Meeting patient needs and maintaining continuity of care are important issues related to patient transfers. Personnel who provide care are highly trained, familiar with the associated demands of land and air transport, legally authorized to perform these skills, and prepared to handle the variety of patient contingencies that may arise during transport [2]. Patients can be picked up from a trauma scene or transferred from one facility to another due to a lack of resources in the former. The trauma scene responses are generally emergent, requiring immediate response, whereas interfacility transfers can be emergent, urgent, or non-urgent. Building and maintaining highly specialized healthcare personnel, equipment, and services (e.g., stroke centres, cardiac centres, trauma centres, and high-risk obstetrics) are more expensive than those provided for a general level of

10 2 care. Integration and regionalization avoids redundancy and promotes the most efficient use of these resources [2]. The care delivery model, where centres of excellence concentrate expertise in a small number of centres, requires patients with potentially time-sensitive or unstable conditions to be transferred from one facility to another in order to access care. The risks versus benefits of interfacility transfers have been reviewed [3], and there is evidence to support the regionalized care model. 1.2 Mode of Transport Dispatch plays a significant role for medical transport systems: receiving and analyzing transport requests, and assigning proper medical personnel and equipment to these requests [4]. The goal of dispatch is to match patient needs with adequate provider knowledge and skills, as well as equipment that provide seamless patient flow during transport. Transport medicine agencies may select from multiple vehicle types (i.e., fixed-wing aircraft, helicopter, and land ambulances), and a multi-specialty team (e.g., physicians, planners, operation managers) can select from the various vehicles depending on patient and transport factors. Therefore, there must be a high-level medical and planning oversight in a transport medicine dispatch centre to select appropriate modes of transportation. There is this perception that provision of air medical transport compared to land transport results in better benefits to the patients and/or regions. The putative explanation for improved outcome is the increment in speed afforded by the air transport vehicle. However, there is continued debate surrounding the use of air transport compared to land transport. The appropriateness of air medical transport can be judged only in light of a given patient s status; temporal, regional, and logistic considerations are also necessary.

11 3 For example, a patient with an amputation of a dominant thumb may require helicopter or fixed-wing evacuation from an offshore island or remote wilderness area; conversely, a patient with severe vehicular trauma occurring within or near city limits may be best served by land transport [5]. One important criterion in selecting transportation type for time-sensitive patients, is time to definite care, defined as the time interval from when the call is received in the dispatch centre to the time the patient arrives at the receiving hospital. In the setting of a trauma patient, this time interval is referred to as the golden hour in recognition that transport to a designated trauma centre positively impacts patient outcome. The same is true for other time-sensitive conditions such as acute myocardial infarction [6, 7], acute ischemic stroke [8], and sepsis. There are also other time related variables that a travel planner or physician may take into consideration when deciding the mode of transportation for interfacility transfers. These variables include time to patient s bed at the sending facility and patient out-of-hospital time. Time to patient s bed at the sending facility (also known as time to sending facility) refers to the amount of time that it takes for paramedics to arrive at the patient s bed at the sending facility. This variable is important especially for patients who require a higher level of care that is not available at the sending hospital but can be provided by the transport medicine team. Patient out-of-hospital time refers to the amount of time that it takes to transfer the patient from his bed in the sending facility to his bed in the receiving facility. This variable is important especially for patients who are critically ill, and require being in a stable environment with a higher level of care [1].

12 4 Time-critical interfacility transfers are often faster when serviced with a helicopter compared to a land ambulance [9], but this is not universally the case. While transport by air may appear to be faster than land transportation, transport by air requires additional steps. These steps include aviation factors such as flight planning, aircraft rollout and start-up, and air traffic control limitations. Air transport also includes the potential for multiple patient transfers between vehicles if there is a land ambulance leg required between an airport and a hospital. Furthermore, due to resource limitations and costs, the aircraft are located in a few dedicated locations so they can provide services to more facilities; however, the land bases are often located in many more different locations. Thus compared to land ambulances, the aircraft in general need to travel greater distances to the sending facilities. Each of these factors may offset the faster travel times provided by aircraft. Thus, there is a clear need for evidence-based estimates of transfer times for different transportation modes, which have to be compared for informed decision making. Given the multiple factors affecting transfer times, accurate estimation of transfer time can be a challenge for medical transport decisions makers. Despite this challenge, supporting transport mode decisions has not received much attention from the research community. For example, [10] developed simple deterministic decision rules for trauma scene responses based on averages obtained from historical data from a single hospital. However, these decision rules did not capture the variability that is inherent in the process. [9] examined 145 cases in a comparison between air and land transport times in interfacility medical transfers, and found that helicopter transport was always faster than land transport. However, the authors only examined transfers between 20 hospitals and

13 5 an intensive care unit at the University of Wisconsin and the generalizability of these findings to other cases is still an open research question. Overall, there is still very little research done in this area, especially regarding how medical dispatchers can make use of historical data to refine their transport decisions in time-critical situations, which is a characteristic of the domain. The effect of time pressure on decision making will be described in the following section. 1.3 An Introduction to Decision Making under Time Pressure Emergencies in general, require actions under risk and time constraints, which are imposed on the responders by the environment and thus are largely out of the decision makers control. The onset of an emergency usually creates a need for action that is timely as when in a triage situation when patients are needed to be sorted immediately into those who need critical attention and those with less serious injuries. All of these factors contribute to the need for response personnel to manage the situation and make quick decisions with resources that are or can be made available within the limited time that is allotted. Decision making in these situations involves making judgments under uncertain and time-limited conditions [11]. Time-pressure reduces the quality of decision making when humans have to acquire and process information from multiple sources [12]. In terms of information acquisition, research has shown that humans tend to cope with time-pressed situations in different ways [13]. Humans may use acceleration, which is attending to all information sources at a faster rate, which in turn may cause errors due to temporary overload of working memory and/or processing capacity. Another strategy is filtration, i.e., gathering only the subjectively important information. Earlier studies on decision making and

14 6 judgment under time pressure indicate increased importance given to negative evidence [14]. Overall, time pressure makes individuals switch to simpler decision-making strategies [15]. The need to process large amounts of information in a short period of time has a definite impact on the decision process and the decision quality. Decisions made without sufficient thought may lead to poor results. Decision-making involves a delicate balance between the competing demands of response speed and choice accuracy, a balance that is usually referred to as the speed accuracy trade-off [16]. In the cognitive sciences, this trade-off is thought to be modulated by a response threshold that determines the amount of diagnostic information that is required to make a decision and initiate an action [16]. Because the accumulation of diagnostic information takes time, high response thresholds lead to accurate, yet slow decisions, and low response thresholds lead to fast, yet errorprone decisions [17]. Other research in bet acceptance tasks [18], in the accuracy of choice responses [19], and in military attack simulations [20] have found that individuals perform significantly worse under time pressure. Furthermore, researchers have found an inverse relationship between the amount of time spent to deliberate on a decision and an individual s confidence in that decision [21]. The role of decision support tools and information systems is to counteract the negative impact of time pressure on decision strategy selection and performance. Decision support tools for dynamic ambulance relocation and automatic ambulance dispatching are examples of the systems that are optimized for speed of decision making [22]. These tools utilize a measure for preparedness, which is a way of evaluating the

15 7 ability to serve current and future calls anywhere in the area. Tools for simulating ambulance operations are other examples used for evaluating strategic decisions, such as where to locate ambulance stations or how large the ambulance fleet should be. There are also simulation tools for training of ambulance dispatchers to make quick decisions [22]. Given the uncertainties associated with emergency situations and the time-critical nature of patient transfers, accurate estimation of transfer times and the associated transport mode decisions can be a challenge for medical transport decisions makers. However, as stated previously, very little research has been conducted in the area of supporting transport mode decisions. Therefore, this thesis lays out the process of developing a decision support tool aimed to support transport mode decisions, in particular, for Ornge, Ontario s air medical transport provider. This tool provides relevant time estimates for interfacility emergent/urgent transfers generated based on historical dispatch and call data. The goal is to enable operators to make evidence-based decisions for vehicle type selection. 1.4 Thesis Organization and Phases of Research The process of patient transfers in Ontario s air medical transport system, Ornge, will be laid out in Chapter 2. This information was collected through field observations, and review of Ornge documents. The behaviour of human operators in estimating time to definite care was assessed through the analysis of a historical dataset on interfacility transfers. The results of this analysis will be discussed in Chapter 3. In order to support the operators in choosing the transportation mode, a decision support tool was created, which provides relevant time estimates for interfacility transfers based on large historical dispatch and call data. The method used for managing, and analyzing the historical data

16 8 (i.e., modular design) will be discussed in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 will describe the design requirements for the tool identified through interviews with end-users, field observations, and statistical analyses. Underlying algorithms used for generating relevant time estimates will be presented in Chapter 6. The results of a usability study conducted to evaluate the preliminary prototype interface will be described in Chapter 7. Chapter 8 will provide a discussion of the findings of this thesis and suggestions for future research.

17 9 Chapter 2 2 Air Medical Transport System in Ontario 2.1 General Information Ornge is a non-profit organization that provides air and land critical care medical transportation for ill and critically injured patients in Ontario. The province of Ontario has a total area of 1,076,395 km², which is an area the size of France, Spain, and the Netherlands combined. Due to the vast size of Ontario, Ornge plays a significant role in ensuring that medical care is accessible to all residents of the province. Accessibility to health services is one of the five key principles in the Canada Health Act of 1977 [23]. As the sole provider for air and land critical care transport medicine services in Ontario, this service performed approximately 81,000 interfacility patient transfers and 7,000 on-scene responses in the five-year interval between 2007 and Interfacility patient transfers and on-scene responses were the most common medical transport services provided (Table 2-1). Among them, emergent and urgent interfacility transfers were the most common and are the focus of this thesis. Table 2 1 Ornge General Information Transfers in Ontario, Canada On-scene Responses Inter-facility Transfers 7,000 Transfers 81,000 Transfers Call Types Emergent & Urgent Emergent & Urgent (63%) Non-urgent (37%) Vehicle Types Helicopter Helicopter Fixed-wing Aircraft Land Vehicle Interfacility transfers typically occur when the patients require a higher level of care that is not available at the sending hospital. Such transfers can be divided into

18 10 emergent (time-sensitive, immediate threat to life 42%), urgent (stable but risk for deterioration or threat to life or limb 21%), or non-urgent (acute but non-urgent, where transfer can safely be deferred 37%). For this type of transfer, Ornge utilizes one or more of the following vehicle types: helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, and land vehicles. Anytime an interfacility emergency response is initiated that meets the criteria for possible air transport, a sending facility notifies Ornge that its service may be needed. Currently, it is the responsibility of the sending facility and Ornge operators to determine if air transport is needed or not. Ornge also responds to on-scene calls. The goal of on-scene responses is to quickly transport trauma patients from an accident scene to a provincial trauma centre or patients suffering from time-sensitive or potentially life-threatening conditions to a centre of excellence where air transport decreases the time to definite care. All Ornge on-scene responses are carried out via helicopter. Thus, Ornge dispatch does not have to make a transport mode decision for on-scene responses. Anytime an on-scene emergency response is initiated that meets the criteria for possible air transport, the local dispatch centre notifies Ornge that its service may be needed. It is the responsibility of the land EMS dispatchers and paramedics to determine if air transport is needed or not and relay that information to 911, who in turn contacts Ornge. The EMS land crew decides that patient care should be turned over to the Ornge flight crew if it deems it necessary to transport the patient by air [24]. The focus of this thesis is on emergent and urgent interfacility transfers which are the most common type of transfers at Ornge, and require a transport mode decision.

19 Field Observations and Interviews Ornge transport medicine service consists of two active divisions: a communications centre (or dispatch) and the ambulance bases (air and/or land). A team of medical and transport experts operate the communications centre where the transport requests are received (by phone, fax, or online), analyzed, and assigned to the proper medical personnel and equipment. The communications centre includes an operations manager (physically present), a transport medicine physician (can work remotely), travel planners (physically present), and medical analysts (physically present). A team of paramedics and pilots operate the ambulance bases. In order to get familiar with these divisions multiple field observations and interviews were conducted. Most of the knowledge on Ornge operations presented in this thesis is gained through these observations and the review of internal Ornge documents Interviews and Shadowing of Ornge Communications Centre (OCC) Staff As mentioned before, the purpose of this research was to design a computer-based decision support tool for improved decision making at Ornge Communications Centre (OCC). The design of an effective user interface required an understanding of the users, their needs, and their tasks. During the first three months, the author spent two day shifts a week at the OCC, and conducted multiple interviews with trip planners, medical analysts, transport medicine physicians, and operation managers at the OCC. These interviews helped the author to better understand the users tasks, their decision making strategies, and terminologies. These interviews also helped the author to get familiar with the data tracking systems used at the Ornge Communications Centre and select the

20 12 appropriate datasets for analysis. In general, most of the end-users expected an easy to use and simple to understand tool that would allow them to perform fast comparisons between land and air scenarios without interrupting their routine activities. Most of them had sufficient knowledge of using Excel and interpreting basic statistical graphs. The other findings from OCC interviews will be discussed in the upcoming sections Interviews and Shadowing of Ornge Paramedics The author also shadowed paramedics in three Ornge bases (2 day shifts in each base): Toronto Rotor-wing Base (Figure 2-1 and Figure 2-2), Greater Toronto Area (GTA) Land Base and Timmins Fixed-wing Base (Figure 2-3) to get familiar with the transport process and the origins of the data from which the tool is built. Figure 2 1 Toronto Rotor wing Base (Photo by Author)

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